Cash Over Coins | MJBurrows Crypto - Issue No 3

Bitcoin is still well below its old highs, and sentiment is stuck deep in fear. Against that backdrop, the market's most committed corporate hoarder did something out of character. Strategy raised cash rather than buy more Bitcoin, lifting its dollar reserve by about $225m to $3.225bn by selling 2.7 million shares — and left all 843,775 of its coins untouched for a second week running. The board could have sold up to $1.25bn of Bitcoin to raise the money; it reached for equity instead. This isn't cold feet: the cash covers the dollar dividends on Strategy's preferred stock and rebuilds a buffer after a bruising run. Michael Saylor's rule has always been never to become a forced seller — and a growing pile of dry powder is how you avoid it.

The same restraint turned up across the aisle in Ethereum. BitMine, the biggest corporate ether holder, barely bought last week — just 7,430 ETH, around $14m, against the 111,000-odd it swept up in a single week back in May. The money went into its own shares instead: an $86m buyback, part of a $4bn programme the board has authorised. The logic is mechanical — when a treasury company's stock trades below the crypto backing it, retiring shares cheaply lifts the ether-per-share of everyone left. BitMine now holds 5.78 million ETH, roughly 4.8% of all the ether in existence and closing on its self-set 5% ceiling, with most of the stack staked for yield. Past that limit, the game stops being about the next coin and starts being about managing the ones you already own.

Crypto's two hungriest buyers spent the week buying something other than more coins — the cards below show the market they're being so patient with. Now, the rest of the issue. — MJB

For a year, BitMine’s whole identity was buying Ethereum — relentlessly, every single week. Yet last week it bought just 7,430 ETH, roughly $14 million (~£10.4m), a trickle next to the more than 111,000 ETH it swept up in a single week back in May. This was not cold feet on ether. BitMine spent the money buying back its own shares instead — $86 million (~£63.9m) of them. And that pivot reveals more about how the largest Ethereum treasury reads its own stock than another week of buying ever could.

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Michael Saylor built Strategy into the world’s biggest corporate bitcoin holder by turning spare dollars into BTC. Yet last week the company did the opposite — it raised cash. Strategy lifted its dollar reserve by about $225 million (~£167.2m) to $3.225 billion (~£2.4bn), and did it without selling any of its 843,775 bitcoin. For a firm founded on the belief that cash is trash, a growing pile of dollars is a story in itself.

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When the two biggest accumulators in crypto both spend a week buying cash and their own shares instead of more coins, it's worth a second look. These are the firms that treated every dip as a shopping list. A pause from them is no verdict on crypto — but it's a long way from the buy-everything swagger of a year ago. — MJB